Introduction

This article presents the configuration steps to initialize an Xcelsius dashboard that is based on SAP NetWeaver BW Connection(s) with specific values by using URL parameters. This allows contextual drill down of a dashboard from another dashboard or web page.

End Result

The end result may look like this :

The user will start from a first dashboard presenting a high level view of the data; the KPIs are highly summarized and the user chooses a dimension value he wants to drill on. In our example, the first column chart presents Net Sales by Year and Product Group; as the user selects a year and clicks on a product group, another dashboard opens up with a more detailed view for those 2 values.

Detailed Steps

"high level" query and dashboard

The high level query has 1 characteristic and 1 key figure and presents Net Sales per Product Group. It also has a free characteristic so we can get a list of values along with the result set.

The Calendar Year is set to a default value for the initial view.

The dashboard contains a Connection button that is hidden to users and triggers the opening of the second dashboard.

"detailed" query and dashboard

The detailed query has 2 characteristics, 3 key figures and 2 mandatory variables (characteristic value).

The variables are not bound to any cell because they will be set at run time with values passed in the URL. The first variable sets the calendar year, its technical name is VAR_YEAR_SELECT_MANDATORY. The second variable sets the Product Group, its technical name is VAR_PRODUCT_GROUP_MANDATORY.

pass variable values to the "detailed" dashboard

Below is the URL to set the variable values when calling the detailed dashboard. The syntax is the same than for BEx Web reports, which is explained in these two pages :

• http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw70ehp1/helpdata/en/19/c640149a0441419d921c74a0ec4680/frameset.htm
• https://forums.sdn.sap.com/message.jspa?messageID=3163098

The main difference is the DASHBOARD parameter instead of QUERY or TEMPLATE.

http://<servername>:<serverport>/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot
/pcd!3aportal_content!2fcom.sap.pct!2fplatform_add_ons!2fcom.sap.ip.bi!2fiViews!2fcom.sap.ip.bi.bex?
DASHBOARD=XC_BICS_CHAR_VAR_MANDATORY_XLF
&BI_COMMAND_1-BI_COMMAND_TYPE=SET_VARIABLES_STATE
&BI_COMMAND_1-VARIABLE_VALUES-VARIABLE_VALUE_1-VARIABLE=VAR_YEAR_SELECT_MANDATORY
&BI_COMMAND_1-VARIABLE_VALUES-VARIABLE_VALUE_1-VARIABLE_TYPE=VARIABLE_INPUT_STRING
&BI_COMMAND_1-VARIABLE_VALUES-VARIABLE_VALUE_1-VARIABLE_TYPE-VARIABLE_INPUT_STRING=2001
&BI_COMMAND_2-BI_COMMAND_TYPE=SET_VARIABLES_STATE
&BI_COMMAND_2-VARIABLE_VALUES-VARIABLE_VALUE_1-VARIABLE=VAR_PRODUCT_GROUP_MANDATORY
&BI_COMMAND_2-VARIABLE_VALUES-VARIABLE_VALUE_1-VARIABLE_TYPE=VARIABLE_INPUT_STRING
&BI_COMMAND_2-VARIABLE_VALUES-VARIABLE_VALUE_1-VARIABLE_TYPE-VARIABLE_INPUT_STRING=DS30

References and Links